He said, "You know what you're doing..."

I was in the airport in Salt Lake City headed back home after a great week at Sundance Resort. I was going through the security line and had my camera gear hand checked and they asked if they could inspect and swab the bag etc. The officer was a great guy and we chatted a bit about the weather and our visit. Then he opened my bag and saw all of my film gear and film. His reaction was pretty cool, "Oh, nice camera. So, you still shoot film? You must really know what you're doing."

Mamiya 645 1000S, 80mm f2.8, 45 sec @ F16, Kodak Portra 160NC

That made me wonder, has the art and craft of photography been cheapened and viewed as "easy" by the masses because of the digital revolution? Has the safety net of that little screen on the back of a digital camera given people the sense that good photography is just as easy as pushing that button? I think it has. People ask me how I know that I am getting what I want when I shoot. The simple answer is I know because I know my gear, and I am shooting film. When I shoot film I tend to over shoot so I usually get some great surprises along with what I planned to get. I hardly get anything unexpected other than the usual eye blinks etc. 

The funny thing is I get just as many "bad" shots when I shoot digital as when I shoot film. To be honest, negative film is so forgiving that I can get more "keepers" out of a roll of film because of the films latitude. Now, any digital shooter worth his/her salt will tell you that the only way to shoot is with digital RAW file format. It's true there is a lot of latitude with that format but you have to spend time in front of the computer to actually pull it all out into the image. The film today is so forgiving that it is like an analog version of the RAW format. Without the computer work. Very nice.